Monday, March 15, 2010

Again on another James Bond tips: Attention Alert, the time is out!

Many ISPs (Internet service providers) have devised monitoring systems that automatically disconnect dial-up connections that have been inactive for a certain period of time, usually 20 minutes. The good news is that such policies prevent absentee users from hogging all the dial-up connections. The bad news is that these policies can prove disruptive to active Internet users who fail to access a new Web page or send an e-mail message at least every 20 minutes.

To avoid these disruptions, you can set your e-mail application to check for messages every 10 or 15 minutes. In Communicator, open the Preferences dialog box, double-click the Mail & Newsgroups category, and highlight the Mail Servers subcategory. Make sure your mail connection is highlighted in the Incoming Mail Servers field, and then click the Edit button. In the next dialog box, click the checkbox next to Check For Mail Every __ Minutes and set it to check for new mail every 10 or 15 minutes.

If you use one of Microsoft's messaging applications, you can adjust this setting by accessing the application's Options dialog box (usually in the Tools menu) and searching for the Check For New Messages Every __ Minutes option. The exact location of this setting varies from one application to the next. In Microsoft Outlook, you'll find it under the Mail Delivery tab of the Options dialog box. In Microsoft Internet Mail, however, you'll find the setting under the Read tab of its Options dialog box.